


Broken Empires

by The_Violet_Howler



Category: Red Rising Series - Pierce Brown, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Aunt/Nephew Incest, Canon Bisexual Character, Dark Age Spoilers, Extremely Dubious Consent, F/F, F/M, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Grimmuscest, Implied/Referenced Cannibalism, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Marriage of Convenience, Multi, Not Canon Compliant - Voltron Season 8, POV Multiple, Past Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Past Rape/Non-con, Politics, Post-Dark Age, Post-Season/Series 06, Season/Series 06 Spoilers, Threats of Violence, Unhealthy Relationships, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2020-09-28 18:26:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20430440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Violet_Howler/pseuds/The_Violet_Howler
Summary: There are infinite realities in existence. Each different by degrees from what we would consider the “main” reality. Some diverge in only minor details, while in others, the universe veered on a drastically different course.In most, Lotor is eventually rescued from the Rift, healed by the princess he loves before they defeat the witch together and restore peace to the universe.In some, he dies in the Quintessence Field, his rotting corpse melted to the pilot’s seat.In fewer still, circumstances align so that he’s never left in the Rift to begin with, and the chaos that followed his falling out with Voltron was avoided.And in a rare handful of realities, his warping in and out of the Quintessence field creates tears in the fabric of the multiverse. And after Voltron leaves him in the Rift, he falls out into another universe before they seal up the tears with the destruction of the Castle of Lions.This is one ofthoserealities.Spoilers for all Red Rising books and the first 6 seasons of Voltron





	1. Lotor | Lost in Space

**Author's Note:**

> I got into the Red Rising fandom a few months before the second season of Voltron: Legendary Defender released on Netflix. Afterwards, my roommate and I had speculated about where Shiro disappeared to at the end of Season 2. One of my theories was time travel, as a way to both relay to the audience the origin story of Zarkon and the original Voltron paladins. The time travel idea stuck with me and I started imagining a crossover when Shiro ended up in the era of Red Rising and what effect that might have on the course of events from the ending of Golden Son onwards.
> 
> So I sat down and started writing a crossover fic titled Hic Sunt Leones. I've since completed that fic and started on a sequel, naturally titled Omnis Vir Lupus. But from the sixth season of Voltron onward, I started to lose my motivation. I struggled to write each new chapter of that fic series, and when I did, I felt unsatisfied with the direction I was choosing to take the story in. I've been sitting with writer's block for the last several months trying to figure out what I was going to do when an idea came to me: I've had so many new theories and excited ideas for the Red Rising universe since the release of the newest novel Dark Age. I was already thinking of starting over from scratch anyways, so why don't I clear the board and start over from scratch, and use the show's alternate realities plot to have the prime version of Lotor end up in the universe of Red Rising without having to justify why the Paladins would allow Gold to rise to power in the VLD universe? 
> 
> So yeah, from this point until the release of the sixth and final Red Rising book, this is going to be my main Red Rising/VLD crossover. I will still leave up Hic Sunt Leones and Omnis Vir Lupus if anyone is interested in trying their own hand at it and doing their own versions of it. But as of now, I will no longer be updating those series.

### Prologue: Lotor | Lost In Space

#### Sunday, January 7th, 754 P.C.E

The throbbing headache did more to revive Lotor from unconsciousness than the blaring alarms did. It didn’t help that the pounding in his head was accompanied by flashes of the battle he’d lost.

In hindsight, it was not one of his proudest moments. It was no wonder his generals had decided to betray him again after the things he’d said.

It wasn’t as if he could blame Allura or the Paladins for reacting as they did. He’d taken advantage of their compassion to advance his own agenda before in his retrieval of the comet, and he wouldn’t be surprised if they’d worried that his offer of an alliance was in reality more of the same. Romelle’s tale would have seemingly confirmed their fears he was using them all along. And his refusal to share the existence of the Colony with Allura and her advisor only made him look more guilty in their eyes. After all, what reason could he have for hiding the survival of their people from them if it wasn’t for some nefarious purpose?

Of course, that was down to a lack of information on their part. The Paladins didn’t know about the ages Haggar had spent sending her cronies to spy on him. About how he’d become so adept at keeping secrets and hoarding information because Haggar had so routinely violated his privacy and boundaries to the point where he only felt safe to discuss his plans freely aboard his own personal ship. 

But what had his paranoia left him in the end?

The hatred of the woman he loved.

The Alteans unprotected.

His closest friendships broken.

And Sincline, the product of deca-phoebs of work pouring over what scraps of research he could find on King Alfor’s creation of Voltron, damaged and battered as it floated in deep space, drifting aimlessly through an unknown system with no way for its pilot to contact his empire.

He was alone.

With no one around to see his heart laid bare, deca-phoebs of hiding his emotions behind a mask of stoic perfectionism fell apart in an instant as the tears began to flow. In only a few vargas he had lost everything, and his own paranoia and refusal to trust even the people closest to him had made the situation worse.

All he could do now was grieve in private for what could have been.

* * *

_“Archimedes hailing unidentified craft. Are you in need of assistance?”_

After he’d finished crying, Lotor had fallen back to sleep as the adrenaline of the last few quinteant finally wore off and left him feeling burnt out and exhausted. He’d gotten a few vargas before the transmission snapped him awake.

Moving quickly, he scanned to trace where the signal was coming from. A small ring appeared on Sincline’s viewscreen and zoomed in to a section of space where a ship unlike any he’d ever seen before was approaching.

Instinctively, his guard went up, wary of Haggar’s spies. However, he soon noticed that this ship appeared to be as banged up as his own was. He didn’t know how long he’d been unconscious for, but Haggar wouldn’t have been able to track his position after she burned her mole to bring him to her. So the odds were likely that whoever this was had no connection to the witch.

_“Unidentified craft, do you read me?”_

“Sincline hailing _Archimedes_,” he answered weakly. The name was foreign on his tongue, but it sounded familiar to his ear. Perhaps it sounded similar to a name the Paladins had mentioned from their home planet. Regardless, he was in no position to refuse an offer of aid when it was presented to him. “I can hear you. And yes, some assistance would be very much appreciated.” 

_“Understood, Sincline,” _the other ship’s occupant responded. _ “I don’t think my hangar has enough room to squeeze your… uh… ship in. But if you can maneuver it over to my course, we can tow it behind us.” _

Carefully, Lotor ran a diagnostic of Sincline’s systems and proceeded to grasp the controls for a quick test. He gave a relieved sigh when the mech began to move slowly forward.

“Understood, _Archimedes_,” he answered. “My thrusters are still functioning so I should be at your heading shortly.”

It took a few minutes for Sincline’s damaged thrusters to push the lumbering mech into the path of the oncoming ship, and in the hour it took for the _Archimedes _to arrive, Lotor examined his armor for signs of damage to make certain it was still safe enough for EVA use. He picked his helmet up off the floor just as the _Archimedes _began its final approach.

Up close, he saw that the battered ship was in even worse shape than it had first appeared on Sincline’s scopes. There were multiple welding marks on the hull that spoke of freshly patched hull breaches, and the sporadic bursts of speed it put on gave away that the engines were damaged and operating at less than peak efficiency.

As the ship passed below, the engines ground to a half, the captain clearly redirecting power to keep the ship in place as Lotor slowly lowered his mech onto the top of the ship’s hull. The magnetic clamps in Sincline’s feet engaged automatically as it crouched atop the _Archimedes_, and Lotor performed a few final checks before leaving his crowning achievement behind.

The captain of the _Archimedes _arrived just as Lotor was exiting his mech. He handed Lotor a tether to anchor him to the battered craft before turning and leading the way back along the cables toward the ship’s airlock.

Once the two of them had cleared the airlock, both of them removed their helmets. It was the first chance Lotor had had to look at the face of the pilot who’d rescued him. At first glance he looked human – the same species as the other Paladins.

But what set him apart was the brilliant golden eyes. From a few brief conversations with the Green Paladin, he knew that such eye colors were not found in their species. _In our reality at least_… he thought to himself. Lotor was beginning to have a sneaking suspicion of how he got out of the Rift and he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to be right.

His new travelling companion’s surprise at his appearance shook him out of his thoughts. Whatever happened. Clearly this species in this reality had not had contact with life beyond their home system before.

“By jove you really are purple,” the man said. His face immediately looked stricken, realizing that his instinctive comment could have been more tactful. “Sorry,” he apologized. “That was rude of me. Wasn’t expecting the purple skin. I just thought that might have been the tint of your helmet’s faceplate.” 

“No offense taken,” Lotor replied.

“You speak common?” the man asked.

“Galra tech relies on neural translation fields to ensure that everything one hears and speaks is automatically translated into the speaker’s native tongue,” he explained. 

“Galra,” the other man repeated. “Is that what you are?”

“Only half,” he answered. “The other half is from the planet Altea. I am Lotor.”

“Cassius au Bellona,” the golden-eyed man returned the introduction. “Welcome aboard the _Archimedes._”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've never read the Red Rising novels before, be warned that this is set after Book 5, in which one of the major villains is revealed to be having sex with her nephew. Later in the same book, she enters into a political marriage to the son of her dead best friend to publicly maintain the unity of their faction. 
> 
> In addition, one of the enemy factions is a terrorist group that is revealed in this book to be forcibly conscripting child brides to ensure that their ideology can continue to future generations. While the faction in question was destroyed in Book 5, their actions and the violence they perpetrated will be mentioned and discussed on occasion. 
> 
> Also, while the series never explicitly depicts sexual violence, this is a war story, and an adult novel series that does not shy away from the brutality of sci-fi warfare. 
> 
> The deaths of those who perished in Book 5 will be discussed, as these deaths are still fresh at the end of the novel. One of these deaths was an infant nailed to a tree by the aforementioned terrorist group barely a few hours after he was born. 
> 
> There's also at least two factions in the canon universe who engage in cannibalism.
> 
> All of this is just to indicate is that this is a series that deals with heavy subjects on a semi-regular basis and give you a warning for what to expect.


	2. Lotor | A New Direction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> # Part I
> 
> # Night
> 
> # “It is always darkest just before the day dawneth.”
> 
> # -Thomas Fuller

### Chapter 1: Lotor | A New Direction

#### Julii-Sun Dockyard

#### Phobos

#### Friday, January 12th, 754 P.C.E.

The chatter of his traveling companion’s meeting was a dull rumble at the back of Lotor’s mind as he stood in the viewing area of the dockyards where he and Cassius had managed to land after limping back to the latter’s home planet of Mars. The presence of civilization on the fourth planet in the Voltron Paladins’ home solar system confirmed his theory that he had fallen out of the Quintessence Field into a different reality.

Which left him at a loss. While he had managed to convince Cassius that he was not from this reality, a discussion of his origins with the current governing body of Mars was not something that it appeared they had time for.

Ten years ago, Cassius had been part of a rebellion against a tyrannical regime but had chosen to lead a life in exile with the grandson of the ruler his friends had deposed. Meanwhile the rebel movement had begun transitioning to a legitimate government while still fighting the remnants of the old regime. But in the last four months, things had apparently gone downhill.

Cassius and Lysander had been responding to a distress call from a cargo ship waylaid by pirates when they were captured by the Moon Lords, a confederacy of the system’s outer planets who, despite the shared belief in the benevolent superiority of their fascist ruling class, had declared their independence from the system’s inner planets around the same time the rebellion officially began.

The details weren’t entirely clear, but Lotor gathered that Lysander had been enamored with the Rim’s ideology because restoring what he perceived as his birthright gave the young man purpose. When their cover was blown, Cassius was forced into three consecutive honor duels for the role he’d played in the assassination of the current Rim leader’s father-in-law and eldest daughter back before he’d defected to the rebellion.

While Dido au Raa’s son Diomedes had saved Cassius’ life when he collapsed from his wounds, Lysander had chosen to aid in the Raa family matriarch’s effort to start a war with the nascent Solar Republic over the objections of her husband Romulus. While Lysander and Diomedes had departed for the innermost planet of Mercury to pursue negotiations with the Society Remnant, Cassius managed to escape from the Rim and return to his home planet to warn the Republic of the impending threat.

That was when Lotor had come into the picture, drifting through space as the human’s already damaged ship limped its way toward home. It had taken another five days to reach Mars. After offering his services to the Republic, Cassius had been informed that a group of senators manipulated by the Society Remnant through criminal intermediaries had launched a coup against the duly elected Sovereign, a woman by the name of Virginia au Augustus whom Cassius appeared to have history with. The previous ArchGovernor of Mars had been assassinated, but the bulk of the Sovereign's supporters were concentrated on Mars and had managed to repel the coup.

Throughout the rest of the system, things were not so fortunate. Several of Augustus’ core support staff had been taken prisoner by Vox Populi radicals, and the status of the Sovereign herself was unknown. The remainder of her staff were stranded in the Republic capital on Earth's moon awaiting reinforcements. In their last transmission, the Howlers, an elite unit formed by the son of the rebellion’s founder, had been captured by a Society unit that was long believed to have been wiped out. Meanwhile the remains of the Republic’s offensive forces under the command of Augustus’ husband Darrow were stranded on Mercury, cut off without escape or reinforcements.

Which left Lotor in a predicament. Without his influence the state of the Galra Empire in his home reality would deteriorate. If his people believed he was missing but alive, his absence would lead to a power vacuum that could tear the empire apart. If they believed him dead, then Haggar would have a second chance at installing Sendak on the throne and killing his father would have been for nothing.

But until Sincline was fully repaired, he was effectively stranded in this reality. The people of this system might be able to help him eventually, but right now they had more urgent priorities. Sincline was in no condition to make it from Mars back to where Cassius had found him, never mind leave the system.

Not to mention that whenever he entertained the though of leaving in search of the next inhabited system with the nebulous and uncertain hope that the inhabitants would be advanced enough to offer repairs to his mech, a deep well of shame pooled up in his gut reminding him of the kind of person he wanted to be. 

It had been his goal ever since he’d begun to learn of his Altean heritage, cemented when his father had destroyed Ven’tar’s planet. His dream had been to provide others with the protection and safety that he had been denied during his own childhood. He wanted to be a protector. A Defender. A hero. 

And what hero could walk away from something like this?

His mind was forced back to the present when an angular warship bearing the fourteen-pointed star of the Solar Republic cruised into view, eclipsing the stars behind it. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, the Galra emperor walked back towards the ongoing holo conference to focus on the conversation at hand.

Excluding himself and Cassius, only one of the people involved in this meeting was attending in person instead of via hologram. Based on Cassius’ descriptions of the color-coded caste system enforced by the Society, Cassius and three others at this table were Golds who had sided with the rebellion over the fascist system they had been raised under. Kavax au Telemanus had a physique comparable to Zarkon’s, but a personality that was far more reminiscent of Allura’s advisor Coran. The Telemanus patriarch was currently stranded on Earth’s moon alongside the Sovereign’s mother-in-law and the remainder of her household guards.

Though she’d greeted them in person after their arrival on Phobos, Kavax’s wife Niobe was contributing to the conversation remotely as she led a portion of Mars’ defense fleet to Luna to secure the Sovereign’s release and evacuate those loyal to her from the moon’s surface.

The last participant in the conference call was a woman whose stature could rival Zethrid. Sefi Volarus was the self-declared queen of the Obsidians – a caste of genetically engineered slave knights used as shock troops by their Gold overlords. In recent months she had been marshaling her people on Mars’ southernmost continent in preparation for a bid to establish themselves as an independent state. Augustus’ son was currently in Sefi’s custody as leverage in exchange for her withdrawal of Republic forces from the land the Obsidians planned to seize.

The Obsidian secession from the Republic and subsequent negotiation of a trade deal through Niobe would have given the Sovereign political leverage over the corporate executives who had spent the last decade using the demand for their products and services to extort the Republic via the senators they had financial influence over. But with the coup, that plan was evidently moot. Sefi was keeping abreast of the situation and had declared her intention to put her plan into action ten days from now. 

“The Free Legions have a month at most before Society forces overrun Heliopolis,” Niobe declared. “With Virginia imprisoned or dead, the Seventh Legion is grounded. If we send the Ecliptic Guard to Mercury, we leave Mars unprotected when the Rim comes.”

“We cannot just leave our family on Luna with those _rats_,” their host, a woman named Victra au Barca, interjected. Despite her obvious pregnancy, her hologram showed her body adorned in full battle armor. Lotor quietly chuckled at how high the demand for maternity armor would be in the empire if the Galra ever considered the idea. With her husband missing in the chaos on Luna, the CEO of Julii Industries was preparing her corporate fleet for war from aboard her flagship _Pandora. _

“Then send us,” Lotor interjected. All eyes turned to him, surprised. Although Cassius’ expression was less surprise and more annoyance that the Galra Emperor had made the offer before he could. “Once the repairs on the Archimedes are complete, Cassius and I can make for Mercury and bring as many of your people home as we can before Heliopolis falls.”

Lotor stood firm under the intensity of the combined analytic stares of his hosts. He was torn. On the one hand, part of him was weary of the constant suspicion he received wherever he went. He’d been untrusted by the Coalition because he was Galra. He was considered untrustworthy by the empire for not being Galra _enough_… But the rest of him understood that these people were justified in being cautious in their first contact with sentient life beyond their solar system. 

“I concur,” the Golden man added. “If we can upgrade the Archimedes with cloaking and better engines we can get to Mercury in time to evacuate the core of the Free Legions’ commanders before the Society retakes the planet.”

The decision made, Lotor returned to his vigil at the window. He lacked the context to discuss the finer details of the plan, so he deferred to those who knew what they were talking about.

The sound of a throat clearing snapped him out of his contemplation. Instinctively, Lotor drew his sword as he whirled around. Realizing that it was only Cassius, he stopped himself.

Returning his blade to its energy storage, he glanced around the room and noticed that the conference call had long since ended.

“Victra is preparing guest quarters for us about her flaghship while the _Arci_’s being repaid,” the human said. “I’ve been aboard the _Pandora _before, so I can show you the way.”

Lotor blinked. After his falling out with the Paladins, he supposed he hadn’t been expecting much in the way of hospitality. Nevertheless, the gesture was appreciated. As the Green Paladin had once told him, “one should not look a gift horse in the mouth.” He still wasn’t clear what a horse was or why one would look it in the mouth, but he understood the sentiment well enough.

“I’d like that,” he said.


	3. Darrow | Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Appologies for the long wait since the last chapter. I was having a lot of writers' block the last few months and had this chapter sitting half finished in my doc for weeks. I finally managed to find the motivation to finish it in a way that I was happy with. Enjoy!

### Chapter 2: Darrow | Reunion

#### Heliopolis

#### Mercury

#### Tuesday, February 6th, 754 P.C.E.

“Hello, goodman. Kavax said you might need a hand.”

For a moment, Darrow stared, uncertain this wasn’t a hallucination. It had been a little over a decade since he had seen Cassius. There had been no contact from him since he had returned Darrow’s class ring years ago as a wedding gift. When Darrow had realized the true identity of “Cato au Vitruvius,” he feared his old friend had gone back to the Society. But here Cassius stood, clad in the brilliant white armor of the Morning Knight, his helmet gleaming like a rising sun.

Darrow’s next thought was that he was dead. That he had finally succumbed to his wounds and, despite his lack of faith in any sort of afterlife, he’d been proven wrong with his old friend here to greet him as he passed into the Vale.

But the stabbing pain from the razor embedded in his lung reminded him that there was still breath in his body, keeping him tethered to the living. Cassius was here. He was alive. And it seemed he was on their side.

“We need to get everyone aboard!” a new voice called out from the garage bay of the ship that floated in the air behind the armored knight. It was the same GD-17 Whisper-Class frigate Cassius had acquired when he and Lysander had departed Luna over ten years ago. _Archimedes_, Darrow remembered he had christened it. The ship showed signs of recent repairs and looked as if it had been given some upgrades in the process.

A tall man, clad in armor of an unfamiliar design, emerged from the ship. The colors of his armor were a geometric pattern of blue and black and gray and orange. The faceplate of the man’s helmet was opaque, and his voice resembled the distinctive Palatine accent of Lunese Golds, but there was something about the accent that sounded distinctly off.

“Right,” Cassius’ voice focused Darrow back on the immediate crisis. Behind the armored man, Republic medici began unloading from the _Archimedes_. “Explanations and introductions can wait,” his old friend replied with a nod in the direction of his companion. “Let’s get your men out of here.” Darrow nodded, rolling his eyes when Cassius moved to scoop him up and carry him down the tower stairs to the lower levels of the Mound.

It wasn’t like he was in any position to refuse the life, though. Between the exhaustion and the razor in his chest, it had taken Darrow two minutes to climb to the top of the tower on his own just a few moments ago. With Cassius here to evac them, the surviving Free Legions needed to move quickly, and they couldn’t afford to waste any more time.

Friction trails glowed in the skies of Heliopolis as they raced into the lower levels. The medici followed them as Cassius descended the steps with Darrow in his arms.

“Get up!” Darrow called out, the energy in his voice drawing the attention of all in the room. “All of you! An evac has arrived. We’re getting out of here. Now.”

With only a moment’s hesitation, the remainder of his forces overcame their shock and sprang into motion. Harnassus and Thraxa took charge, the knowledge of escape giving everyone a renewed hope even as the weight of the knowledge that they must abandon those outside the mound settled on their shoulders like a curtain of lead.

Cassius carried Darrow back to the ship as the medici began carrying the wounded up the stairs toward the waiting frigate. Cassius’ silent companion helped the Reaper aboard once the two men reached the top. Screwface was carried aboard next, a new medicus already applying fresh bandages to stop the bleeding around his hairline while another worked to save what was left of his leg. The most critically wounded were loaded up the fastest, the silent specter of Cassius’ companion carrying Republic soldiers over his shoulder with one hand each, adding further to the mystery of who this stranger was.

Gunfire echoed from the lower levels of the Mound as the last few waves of evacuees were making the climb toward the ship. _The Ash Legions are here, then, _Darrow thought to himself as the stranger carried raced out of the cargo bay back down the tower. Lysander’s Heliopolitan mob hadn’t had access to any tech. Which meant that Ajax or Atalantia had made landfall with Votum reinforcements.

Minutes later,

“Take off!” the man shouted. “Now!” The ship began to lift away from the tower as Cassius headed to close the bay doors.

“I need a co-pilot!” a voice called from the cockpit in the clipped tones of a Rho sect Blue. In an instant the man sprinted towards the pilot’s voice. Darrow waved the medici off of him and moved to follow as quickly as the pain would allow.

He limped into the cockpit in time to see a particle beam sheave through the leg of the statue of Helios that towered over the Mound. The stone god teetered over and crashed into the sea with a groan that could be heard through the open garage bay. With their path cleared, the ship rocketed over the ranks of soldiers filling the courtyard bellow. The familiar warble of gravBoots echoed as armored Gold knights took to the skies to pursue them while they fled the city across the Bay of Sirens.

At the sound of the bay doors closing, Darrow turned to find Cassius standing at the edge of the bay with a forlorn expression on his face. A shudder ran through the floor that Darrow recognized as the hallmark of Sun Industries cloaking tech. It seemed Cassius had been busy, but further questions would have to wait. It was time for a proper reunion.

“Brooding again?” Darrow teased as the medici helped him over to his friend. Cassius offered a sad smile.

“Just thinking of how badly I failed,” the Morning Knight replied. “I had him for ten years, but a breath in the court of Dido au Raa, and it was like nothing I’d tried to teach him mattered.”

“I’m sorry,” Darrow said. Because what else _could _he say? Sevro had advised against letting Lysander au Lune live all those years ago in the Dragon Maw. And now it appeared that his old friend had been proven right.

The sounds of pursuit soon faded as the ship sped across the Caliban sea and began the climb into orbit. The walls rattled as it climbed through the atmosphere. Darrow grit his teeth as the turbulence exacerbated the pain in his chest. One of the medici held the razor tightly to keep it from doing further damage to his lung.

After a few minutes, the rattling ceased, and Darrow was overcome by a feeling of weightlessness as he lifted off the floor in the brief moment before artificial gravity took hold and returned his body to the deck.

Darrow breathed a sigh of relief, then held up a hand to stop the medici from sedating him. He needed an update on the situation off-planet before they took the razor from his lung.

“You’ve clearly been busy,” he said as he sat down on one of the cots the medici had set up. His tone was friendly, but he and Cassius both knew the unspoken question that lurked beneath the surface: _What happened to you? _

“We’d intercepted a distress beacon from amateur pirates in the belt,” Cassius began. “Ascomanni had raided the ship. When we found the survivors, one of the ship’s crew members revealed that they’d been hired by a Lunese Gold around Lysander’s age to deliver her to an asteroid in the belt. Lysander went back for her and insisted we go to those coordinates. He said she’d told him help was there while he helped her in the medical bay. The Ascomanni pursued us to the asteroid, where we were intercepted and boarded by a Rim destroyer. The girl was Seraphina au Raa.”

The last time Darrow had seen the daughter of Romulus, she’d been a quiet eight-year-old curious about the world around her. Evidently the years had hardened her as she grew up.

“Lysander, Pytha, and I were taken prisoner and brought back to Io,” Cassius continued. "Seraphina had been sent by her mother to meet with an information broker from the Ophion Guild and collect proof of your actions at the Rim. They have helmet cam footage from when you destroyed the docks at Ganymede.”

Darrow’s heart sank. He knew that once the Rim learned of his deception at the Battle of Ilium all those years ago the Raa would retaliate. But he had hoped to have dealt with the Society in the Core by the time that day finally came. Now it seemed that Lysander had brought that day sooner than he’d every anticipated.

“You mentioned Kavax sent you?” he asked.

“I was forced to fight the Raa in the Bleeding Place as revenge for my part in the death of Revus and his granddaughter,” Cassius explained. “I was badly wounded, but Romulus’ son Diomedes saved my life. As far as either the Rim or the Society know, I’m a dead man. I managed to escape and make my way back to Mars, where I offered my services to the Republic. Niobe was leading the Ecliptic Guard to rescue Virginia from the Vox on Luna. Last I heard they got her out and are on their way back to Mars.”

Darrow let out a sigh of relief. His wife was alive.

“The rest can wait, brother,” Cassius finished, nodding to the razor in Darrow’s chest. “You need to get that fixed before the adrenaline wears off.”

Darrow wanted to insist he was fine. To press for more information about the state of the Republic. But Cassius was right. Now that they were away from Mercury, they had time to treat the wounded before planning their next move. And if he ran himself into the ground again making sure that everyone else was taken care of first, more than one of his friends in the garage bay would never let him hear the end of it.

So with great reluctance, he let the medici guide him away from Cassius toward a cot as they injected anesthetic into his chest and prepared to remove the blade from his lung. As he drifted off, he caught sight of the stranger who had accompanied Cassius on this rescue mission. Unlike before, the figure’s helmet was no longer opaque, but was instead translucent. Darrow could not tell if the helmet was tinted or if his exhaustion was making him hallucinate, because in this light, the man looked as if he had purple skin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> holding back on Darrow being introduced to Lotor properly until next chapter. I wanted to have this one focused exclusively on the escape from Mercury and the immediate aftermath of Cassius' arrival that happened entirely offscreen in _Dark Age_. Next chapter will be Lotor's POV as Darrow gets caught up to speed on the state of the solar system at this stage of the war.


End file.
